Hyderabad:Hyderabad cybercrime police have arrested a fraudster for impersonating a senior government official and targeting businesspersons across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The accused, Budumuru Nagaraju, 32, a former cricketer from Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh, posed as the personal secretary and officer on special duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister of Telangana.
Nagaraju created a fake email ID and used it to impersonate the CM’s OSD. The fraud came to light after the actual OSD complained about the misuse of his identity.
Nagaraju recently attempted to defraud Krishna Mohan Bollineni, MD of Bollineni Infra Projects, using a fake ID. Earlier targets included high-profile entrepreneurs such as Aravind Sanka of Rapido, Srinivas Gupta of Gupta Realty, Sri Chakradhar and Nitin Kaushal of Country Delight, among others. He approached them via email, WhatsApp and phone calls, seeking money under the guise of official requests from the CM’s office.
Police said Nagaraju has 13 similar cases registered against him in Telangana and 16 in Andhra Pradesh. A non-bailable warrant issued in 2020 is also pending against him in Hyderabad. His modus operandi involved fabricating the digital identities of top officials and soliciting funds from unsuspecting business heads.
He was booked under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act and Section 319(2) of the BNS and has been remanded to judicial custody. A mobile phone used in the offence was seized and sent for forensic examination. Officials urged the public to verify such messages and report cyber fraud immediately by calling 1930 or visiting https://cybercrime.gov.in.
